a community of practitioners

marketing for a male massage therapist

I need help. I need ideas to help market myself in the salon I work in. I have been there for 3 weeks and have done 3 massages. I have passed out business cards, worked at charity events, free chair massages, posted on line. I am going to start hanging up flyers around places, but I do not know what else to do. thank you for any advice.

David

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jody C. Hutchinson on June 29, 2011 at 8:08am

David,

You might try to specialize in sports, orthopedic or some kind of medical/clinical work. This may be tough in a salon, but it's a nice way to beat the gender thing. Be aware that giving away freebies can give a bunch of takers who won't become clients. Try a discount or card thing, where there is some incentives and people are qualified(spending $) at the business. Also, work the people who work there, for word of mouth, especially the receptionist.

Hang in there, it takes time.

Cheers,

Permalink Reply by David on June 29, 2011 at 8:34am

Thanks Jody,

I have not tried the card deal yet. I do work on all the stylist here and I hear them talking about me to their clients.

Permalink Reply by Lucianna Johnston on June 29, 2011 at 12:22pm

Make sure you are marketing to the right people, donate gift certificates to local events/fundraisers, participiate in community events and just be a presence at the salon you are working in. Don't over do it but be friendly and available. Maybe offer some sort of introductory massage rate that is low enough for people to feel motivated to try you out. From there plug away my friend..it takes time. From experience, hanging up flyers and passing out cards doesn't really work that well. People need to see you, talk to you, like you. I have gotten a lot of people in my office with the donating thing....good luck!

Permalink Reply by David on June 29, 2011 at 4:58pm

Thanks Lucianna,

that is a good idea to donate some gift certificates. Just not sure where to find the fund raisers. I am doing a special for the month of July 30 dollars for an hour.

Permalink Reply by Marissa on June 29, 2011 at 8:33pm

Free advertising: local business sections at Yahoo, Google, and Bing. Whether you have a website or not, you have web presence. List yourself under massage therapist, massage, and salon. That way you will come up in each as someone searches. Getting a website is very easy, btw, if you don't have one. GoDaddy has a "free" one page site included with your purchase of domain name and hosting. $50. One massage for a year of web space = good investment and tax deductible! Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Lisa on June 30, 2011 at 10:50am

I'd have to give this some thought but off the top of my head:

1. try spinning your advertising to target the husbands and boyfriends of the woman that go to the salon.

2. see if you can offer couple specials and go in with another therapist at the salon. (that's obviously only if there are other therapists there to work with)

3. If you can't afford a website at the moment, at minimum start a facebook business page and start listing your times that are available, cancellations with "deals" if they come in immediately, and other things like that. You can use facebook to show off your credentials, photos of your room, etc. all for free.

Permalink Reply by David on June 30, 2011 at 3:25pm

@ Lisa,

Thank you, and I am already doing all that except I need to work on my website. I have a free one through the ABMP. @ Marissa, thank you I did the google thing now I am about to work on the yahoo site. I tried Yelp and Bing but they were confusing.

Permalink Reply by G. Anthony Muro on July 5, 2011 at 3:02pm

David,

As a male MT myself, I can relate to the difficulty you are experiencing. Everything stated above is pretty accurate, but I will highlight the being in front of people. You work in a salon, this means you have access to a number of potential clients.

1) I'll ask this, what do you wear on a daily bases? As for me, I'm always in scrubs. Visually, when you are approaching potential clients (especially female clients) you need to look professional. We have a lot of stigmas in which we need to overcome therefore we need to always be on point.

2) Scents; when I walk around the salon, all staff know I've walked by because I always have an essential oil scent on my arms. This gets stylists to talk about me to their clients. It also helps when speaking with potential clients and they smell the calming scent.

3) When I speak to a potential client, I softly shake their hand. If they firmly shake my hand, that's ok, I will always have a soft shake. (I don't need to intimidate them.) Make sure you do all you can to make your hands soft. As you are shaking a hands, the potential client will feel how soft your hands are...another welcoming sign to them.

4) Listen. When talking to a potential client, get their name and always use it. Listen to what they are saying. Laugh, chit chat, calm them down, let them warm up to you. As they are talking, they will tell you something in which you will be able to tie back to a massage. And if ever the client or the stylist makes a comment that may be viewed with a sexual under tone, negate it. You don't want the client to associate that with you because if they do, they will not be a client.

5) You MUST be way better than your closest competition (which most likely will be female MTs). Let your work do the speaking for you. You say you have had 3 massages the last 3 weeks, out of those 3 clients, ALL 3 should have rebooked and be coming back in 4-8 weeks. At the bare minimum, 2 should. All the advertising in the world will not beat word of mouth. I run a first time client special (roughly 25% off) and my return rate is close to 80%. Out of those 1st time clients, 50% referr one of their family members or friends within 7 weeks. Then reward the client for the referral with a discount.

I have more to offer you, but not the time. In case you didn't notice, when I approach a potential client, I touched on 4 out of the 5 senses of the body. It's hard for males to be in this field and we need to always be on our toes to survive. Hope this helps you.

Permalink Reply by Dayna Davis on July 17, 2011 at 9:02am

I might have overlooked this if it was mentioned before but if you have a massage chair put that in the waiting room of the Spa and offer chair massages. Hope this helps and good luck!

Dayna Davis

Permalink Reply by Daniel Cohen on July 17, 2011 at 9:18am

At my massage clinic the massage chair is in the front window with a sign 10 minute massage $10. We get walkins taking advantage of it when they have little time. Many return for the same or an hour table massage. We are in a small plaza with a restaurant next door. A bakery is also moving in soon. I'm worried about the temptation but expect to get more walkins from the traffic.

Permalink Reply by David on July 17, 2011 at 9:21am

Yup the Massage chair is right in front of the counter, but we offer free 10min chair massage. Thank you to both Daniel and Dayna

Permalink Reply by David on July 17, 2011 at 9:33am

Thank you,

I wear black business casuals pants and a polo shirt. The essential oil is a great idea. I do tend to shake hands very firmly and my hands tend to be kinda rough, so that is something I need to work on. Over the last 2 weeks I have been picking up. The chair massages that I have done have begun to pay off. people are rebooking and word of mouth is slowly picking up. If you have anymore advice I would be happy to here it.

Thank you again,
G. Anthony Muro said:

David,

As a male MT myself, I can relate to the difficulty you are experiencing. Everything stated above is pretty accurate, but I will highlight the being in front of people. You work in a salon, this means you have access to a number of potential clients.

1)  I'll ask this, what do you wear on a daily bases? As for me, I'm always in scrubs. Visually, when you are approaching potential clients (especially female clients) you need to look professional. We have a lot of stigmas in which we need to overcome therefore we need to always be on point.

2)  Scents; when I walk around the salon, all staff know I've walked by because I always have an essential oil scent on my arms. This gets stylists to talk about me to their clients. It also helps when speaking with potential clients and they smell the calming scent.

3)  When I speak to a potential client, I softly shake their hand. If they firmly shake my hand, that's ok, I will always have a soft shake. (I don't need to intimidate them.) Make sure you do all you can to make your hands soft. As you are shaking a hands, the potential client will feel how soft your hands are...another welcoming sign to them.

4) Listen. When talking to a potential client, get their name and always use it. Listen to what they are saying. Laugh, chit chat, calm them down, let them warm up to you. As they are talking, they will tell you something in which you will be able to tie back to a massage. And if ever the client or the stylist makes a comment that may be viewed with a sexual under tone, negate it. You don't want the client to associate that with you because if they do, they will not be a client.

5) You MUST be way better than your closest competition (which most likely will be female MTs). Let your work do the speaking for you. You say you have had 3 massages the last 3 weeks, out of those 3 clients, ALL 3 should have rebooked and be coming back in 4-8 weeks. At the bare minimum, 2 should. All the advertising in the world will not beat word of mouth. I run a first time client special (roughly 25% off) and my return rate is close to 80%. Out of those 1st time clients, 50% referr one of their family members or friends within 7 weeks. Then reward the client for the referral with a discount.

I have more to offer you, but not the time. In case you didn't notice, when I approach a potential client, I touched on 4 out of the 5 senses of the body. It's hard for males to be in this field and we need to always be on our toes to survive. Hope this helps you.